State: Doctor's wife mishandled vaccines, caused outbreak
https://www.wkyt.com/content/news/State-Doctors-wife-mishandled-vaccines-caused-outbreak-513026981.html

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports the board on Friday placed Dr. Paul E. McLaughlin on five years' probation. He also was ordered to pay $5,000 for delegating to someone without a medical license and contributing to a public health crisis.

The vaccination provider "Location Vaccination" is owned and operated by McLaughlin's wife, Fairshinda Sabounchi McLaughlin.

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DR Congo health minister resigns in Ebola row
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-49077156

The health minister in the Democratic Republic of Congo has resigned in protest at the handling of the Ebola outbreak in the east of the country.

In his resignation letter, Oly Ilunga condemned a decision by President Félix Tshisekedi to replace him as the head of the Ebola response team.

He also criticised what he described as outside pressure to roll out a new experimental Ebola vaccine.

The outbreak has killed more than 1,700 people over the past year.

Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak an international health emergency.

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Deadly new fungal superbug is worrying doctors — here's what you need to know
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/deadly-new-fungal-superbug-is-worrying-doctors-heres-what-you-need-to-know-172932479.html


Months after health officials in New York, New Jersey and Illinois raised concerns about a new deadly fungal superbug, a study has suggested climate change may be playing a role in its troubling rise.

“Candida auris fungus” (C. auris) is a multi-drug–resistant fungal infection that spreads in hospitals and is extremely deadly — killing as many as one in three who get it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

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Drug-resistant malaria ‘spreading aggressively’ across South East Asia, scientists say
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/malaria-warning-drug-resistant-mosquito-thailand-asia-cambodia-laos-vietnam-a9017316.html

Drug-resistant malarial parasites are spreading rapidly across South East Asia amid fears the new strain could reach Africa.

The new strain has moved from Cambodia to Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, with up to 80 per cent of malarial parasites in circulation resistant to the two most common antimalarial drugs.

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Too many in Congo’s Ebola outbreak are dying at home
https://www.apnews.com/1ddc22802784423e8263ac711cac9382

BENI, Congo (AP) — Two-month-old Lahya Kathembo became an orphan in a day. Her mother succumbed to Ebola on a Saturday morning. By sunset her father was dead, too.

They had been sick for more than a week before health workers finally persuaded them to seek treatment, neighbors said.

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Saudi Arabia suspends Hajj visas for DR Congo over Ebola
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/07/saudi-arabia-suspends-visas-people-dr-congo-ebola-190726143929586.html

Saudi Arabia has banned entry to travellers coming from the Democratic Republic of the Congo over fears Ebola could spread during next month's Hajj pilgrimage.

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Florida health officials announce uptick in mosquito-borne virus that causes brain swelling
https://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-health-officials-announce-uptick-mosquito-borne-virus/story?id=64631958&cid=clicksource_4380645_null_headlines_hed

Health officials in Central Florida are warning of an increase in cases of Eastern equine encephalitis, a rare mosquito-borne virus that can cause inflammation in the brain and can be deadly.

Several sentinel chickens in the same flock have tested positive for Eastern equine encephalitis, and the risk of transmission to humans has increased, the Florida Department of Health in Orange County announced last week.

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Bangladesh facing worst dengue fever outbreak in its history, 1,000 people diagnosed in under 1 day
https://www.rt.com/news/465393-bangladesh-historic-dengue-fever-outbreak/

Hospitals are overflowing and social media is filled with pleas for blood donors as 1,000 people, the majority of whom are children, have been diagnosed with dengue fever in the past 24 hours in a historic outbreak in Bangladesh.

Official figures state that eight people have died as a result of infection since January, though local media puts the death toll as high as 35, while around 13,000 patients have been diagnosed with the disease so far this year. There have been 8,343 cases in July alone.

:-(

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Ebola crisis: Second death confirmed in DR Congo border city of Goma
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-49172259

A second person has died of Ebola on the Democratic Republic of Congo's border with Rwanda, raising fears the deadly illness could spread.

The artisanal miner died on Wednesday morning in the city of Goma, home to two million people, authorities said.

More than 1,600 people have died of Ebola in DR Congo since the outbreak began in August 2018 but those have been in more remote areas.

The World Health Organization called it a global health emergency last week.

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Ebola crisis: Rwanda reopens border with DR Congo amid outbreak
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-49191715

Rwanda has reopened its border with DR Congo, where an Ebola outbreak has killed more than 1,800 people in the past year.

The border was closed for several hours after the confirmation of a third death from Ebola in the Congolese city of Goma.

At least 2,700 people have been infected in the worst Ebola outbreak in the country's history.

Tackling the disease has been complicated by conflict in the region.

About 12 new cases are being reported every day in Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports.

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Entenmann’s Little Bites cookies recalled in 36 states for 'choking hazard' from plastic
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2019/08/02/cookie-recall-entenmanns-mini-chocolate-chip-cookies-recalled/1903501001/

Days ahead of National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, select boxes of Entenmann’s Little Bites Soft Baked Cookies are being recalled in 36 states.

Bimbo Bakeries USA Inc. is recalling Entenmann’s mini chocolate chip cookies sold in a five-pack box “due to the potential presence of visible, blue plastic pieces in the individual packaging pouch,” according to the recall notice posted Thursday on the Food and Drug Administration website.

"The plastic is not baked into the product since it was introduced during the packaging process; however, consumption of the plastic pieces may result in a choking hazard," Bimbo Bakeries said in the recall notice.

The company announcement said there have been no reports of injury and no other Entenmann’s products are affected.

National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day is celebrated Aug. 4.

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:-(

One year on — No end in sight for deadly Ebola outbreak

https://www.axios.com/one-year-mark-shows-no-end-for-deadly-ebola-outbreak-drc-7c826a54-5d87-48e7-b2b5-6c70b3d9788c.html

One year ago today, the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared an outbreak of Ebola. Since then, more than 1,800 people have died, the virus has been carried to the large city of Goma on the border of Rwanda and to nearby Uganda, and violence has killed health workers.

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Older story. :-(

14 teens, young adults in 2 states hospitalized for lung disease that may be linked to vaping
https://www.wwlp.com/news/14-teens-young-adults-in-2-states-hospitalized-for-lung-disease-that-may-be-linked-to-vaping/

TAMPA (WFLA/CNN) – Health officials say 14 young people in two states have been hospitalized for breathing problems possibly linked to vaping.

Officials from Illinois and Wisconsin made the announcement Friday, saying those hospitalized were teenagers and young adults.

Three of the cases were in Illinois, and 11 were in Wisconsin where the patients were hospitalized for severe respiratory illnesses.

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So very sad.

Philippines declares national epidemic as Dengue fever cases rise past 145,000
https://www.foxnews.com/world/philippines-national-epidemic-dengue-fever


Health officials in the Philippines have upgraded the country’s outbreak of Dengue fever to a national epidemic as more than 145,000 cases have been reported since January alone.

The agency's Secretary Francisco Duque III made the announcement Tuesday in hopes that local governments would now be able to tap into a special Quick Response Fund to combat the quick-spreading disease.

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Ebola in DRC: Three medics arrested over killing of WHO doctor
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2019/08/ebola-drc-medics-arrested-killing-doctor-190808101648963.html

Three doctors from the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been arrested for their alleged role in the killing of a World Health Organization (WHO) doctor in April, according to military prosecutors.

Cameroonian doctor Richard Mouzoko was shot and killed during an attack on a hospital in Butembo, a city in North Kivu province and an epicentre of the Ebola response in the country. He had been sent to the eastern region as part of the WHO's attempt to stop the spread of the disease's outbreak, the second deadliest on record.

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The CDC shut down an Army lab that’s working on an Ebola vaccine
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/08/08/the-cdc-shut-down-an-army-lab-thats-working-on-an-ebola-vaccine/



An Army lab that houses Ebola virus and other infectious diseases has been shutdown due to violations found in June by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a CDC spokeswoman confirmed to Army Times on Thursday.

But officials say there were no associated health risks.

The U.S. Army Medical Research of Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, is at a standstill until the violations are fixed and it is re-instated with the Federal Select Agents Program, which allowed it to handle dangerous biological specimens.

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Massachusetts has first human EEE case in 6 years; 9 communities at critical risk
https://www.wcvb.com/article/massachusetts-has-first-human-eee-case-in-6-years-state-health-officials-say-9-communities-at-critical-risk/28666278

BOSTON —

A human case of Eastern equine encephalitis has been confirmed in Massachusetts, the first in the state in six years, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

The DPH said laboratory testing confirmed the EEE virus infection in a man older than 60 from southern Plymouth County. State health officials did not indicate which community the man resides in.

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Next article is shocking

Ebola now curable after trials of drugs in DRC, say scientists
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/12/ebola-now-curable-after-trials-of-drugs-in-drc-say-scientists

Ebola can no longer be called an incurable disease, scientists have said, after two of four drugs being trialled in the major outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were found to have significantly reduced the death rate.

ZMapp, used during the massive Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, has been dropped along with Remdesivir after two monoclonal antibodies, which block the virus, had substantially more effect, said the World Health Organization and the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which were co-sponsors of the trial.

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A flight attendant who contracted measles has died amid a global rise in outbreaks
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/08/13/flight-attendant-who-contracted-measles-has-died-amid-global-rise-outbreaks/


An Israeli flight attendant died after contracting measles and falling into a coma, Israeli media reported Tuesday, the latest incident amid growing measles outbreaks in countries around the world.

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YES!!!!! :-)

Ebola now curable, thanks to Congolese doctor behind treatment that ‘cures symptoms in just an hour’
https://face2faceafrica.com/article/ebola-now-curable-thanks-to-congolese-doctor-behind-treatment-that-cures-symptoms-in-just-an-hour


“I spent four decades of my life thinking how to treat patients with the Ebola virus. So this is the achievement of my life,” Dr Jean-Jacques Muyembe, who with his team of researchers, has discovered a new Ebola treatment that can cure symptoms in just an hour told the BBC.

Four drugs were recently trialled on patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Ebola has killed nearly 1,900 people over the past year.

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